Food Inflation

Food Inflation, or the steadily rising cost of food commodities, is a growing global issue. The price of many basic food items like wheat, rice, coffee, milk, meat, soy, and corn has increased dramatically, for some items as much as doubling, in the last year. This has already had a huge impact on nations in which poverty is common. In many western nations consumers have already adapted their eating habits, something that has not happened in response to price increases in recent years. The price of food has also caused political instability, with notable riots breaking out in Egypt and Haiti. Fast Facts:

1. Price of wheat doubled in the United States between 2007 and 2008
2. Wheat prices reached an all time high in the United States in 2008
3. Milk and meat prices more than doubled in the United States during this period
4. The United Nations projects a 53% increase in cereals prices in Europe
5. The UN also projects a 43% increase in cereals prices in Africa
6. Riots have occurred in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Senegal, Mauritania, Ivory Coast, Egypt and Morocco

Causes:

1. Increasing population
2. Increased demand for wheat in Chinese markets
3. Increasing production of biofuels
4. Successive poor harvests
5. High tariffs and blocked exports

• Google News: Food Inflation
• WashingtonPost.com: Objects on Your Plate May Be Smaller Than They Appear (April 13, 2008)
• Al Jazeera: Food Prices Fuel Security Fears (April 12, 2008)
• BBC News: Rice Prices 'to Keep on Rising' (April 11, 2008)
• The Guardian: Food Inflation Could Put 100 MLN at Risk (April 11, 2008)
  • "A doubling of food prices in the last three years could potentially put 100 million people in low income countries deeper into poverty and raise the global poverty rate as much as 3 to 5 percentage points, a senior World Bank official said."
• The Independent: Rice Races to Record High (April 8, 2008) WARNING: Pop-ups
• Agence France-Presse: High food prices seen leading to strikes, protests in Asia (April 8, 2008)
• allAfrica: Food Inflation is Huge Minefield for African Governments (March 28, 2008)
• The Guardian: Fears Grow That Food Inflation Threatens Fairtrade (March 18, 2008)
• Times Online: Food Costs Send Chinese Inflation Soaring (November 13, 2007)
• Times Online: Flooding's Effect on Food Prices Imperils Drive Against Inflation (July 30, 2007)